I was having grave misgivings over the past few days about whether or not to buy the game, so I was really hoping to give it a try before commiting the money to it. I could put down quite an extensive list of games that I believed the hype, bought and was burned. Donno....

I was having grave misgivings over the past few days about whether or not to buy the game, so I was really hoping to give it a try before commiting the money to it. I could put down quite an extensive list of games that I believed the hype, bought and was burned. Donno....

While I concede that it will be impossible to play a beta and not form an opinion on the game itself, you have to remember in it's current form there is a chance it could be buggy as hell, missing content, have certain graphics settings disabled, et cetera. Simply put; if you wanted to get into the Beta merely to use it as a demo, you're doing it wrong and you're doing a disservice to Anet and people who want to see a polished game at launch.

While I concede that it will be impossible to play a beta and not form an opinion on the game itself, you have to remember in it's current form there is a chance it could be buggy as hell, missing content, have certain graphics settings disabled, et cetera. Simply put; if you wanted to get into the Beta merely to use it as a demo, you're doing it wrong and you're doing a disservice to Anet and people who want to see a polished game at launch.

It's not surprising, unfortunately, how some people now see Beta access as a try before you buy opportunity considering the way some devs and publishers -including ANet- use it as a way to generate hype. We are seeing more and more than devs will refuse to put a title out to beta before it achieves even a level of polish as opposed to a few years ago when they were truly bug ridden environments. Sometimes I wish we could go backs to the days when betas where done behind closed doors and the first you really time got substantial info on a game was when it was released, but that genie has long been let out the bottle.

I saw that announcement just now, I didn't even know beta invites were being sent out.

No invites on either of my emails, obviously. The only thing I don't understand is, I've gotten like two filler emails from Arenanet since the signups (Like, "Hey! Thanks for signing up! We will invite shortly!") a few weeks ago... But, my other email that I used for another PC to test on didn't get this filler email, or any of the others since the signup email.

I'm kind of confused if they just completely forgot about that signup or what...

Anyway, no Pandas or Charr for me this weekend. Back to playing the same games I've been playing for months until a new, fun game comes up that won't make me bored in 4 days.

While I concede that it will be impossible to play a beta and not form an opinion on the game itself, you have to remember in it's current form there is a chance it could be buggy as hell, missing content, have certain graphics settings disabled, et cetera. Simply put; if you wanted to get into the Beta merely to use it as a demo, you're doing it wrong and you're doing a disservice to Anet and people who want to see a polished game at launch.

Yeah, your right. I am just terribly disappointed, not just about the beta thing (which is a factor) but some other things I have seen about the game today.

I'd wager when they release public betas and stress tests you'll stand a good chance of getting in, even without purchasing the game beforehand on April 10th.

Exactly. Pre-purchase only guarantees access to the weekend betas. I never saw anywhere that it was the only way (though I will admit that my information is a tad limited considering I have not been following the game too closely).

Exactly. Pre-purchase only guarantees access to the weekend betas. I never saw anywhere that it was the only way (though I will admit that my information is a tad limited considering I have not been following the game too closely).